La Machine
La Machine was a wedged robot that competed in the latter three Robot Wars US tournaments. Commonly hailed as the pioneer of the wedge, it appeared in the 1995 US Open fighting alongside its fellow Americans in various battles which was broadcast, through a series of montages, as part of the British Robot Wars, included in Heat D of Series 1, and the VHS release of Robot Wars: The First Great War. Design La Machine's design was inspired by the visual of a jetskier going over a ramp and getting flung into the air, only with the roles reversed - the ramp would charge at the target to create the same effect. For its time, La Machine was exceptionally fast. It easily scooped up other robots and rammed them against the wall, the impact usually flipping them over and ending their chances - few robots had a contingency for being turned over. La Machine's weight in its initial appearance in 1995 made it a middleweight but was effective against most heavyweights, particularly when it competed in that year's heavyweight melee. Robot History Series 1 La Machine was one of three US Robot Wars competitors, along with Thor and The Master, to be invited to compete in the 1995 UK Open Competition. It fought in numerous battles alongside its fellow American compatriots, as well as future Stock Robots Grunt and Eubank the Mouse, with considerable success. La Machine was even capable in ramming Grunt out of the arena during one battle. La Machine and The Master teamed up in a football competition, where they easily beat Eubank the Mouse and Grunt before turning on each other with La Machine ramming The Master about and even toppling the goalposts. 1996 Championship Many of La Machine's fights from the 1996 championship were shown during the First Wars Heat D, and were also heavily featured in the American Robot Wars 1996 VHS. La Machine's first match was against South Bay Mauler. As the match began, South Bay Mauler spun up to speed but was quickly bashed into by La Machine. La Machine then backed away and charged in a second time - propping South Bay Mauler up and an angle. South Bay Mauler was continually pressured by La Machine's ramming attacks and was then slammed against the arena wall. South Bay Mauler showed little movement as the fight progressed, and La Machine progressed on through. In the second round, La Machine faced Tazz. Tazz initially dodged away from La Machine, which then quickly turned and slipped underneath Tazz. Then, La Machine rammed Tazz into a side wall before backing away. The two robots lingered about, driving in circles away from each other before La Machine came in and slammed Tazz against the "mousetraps" where the top armour from Tazz flew off. Tazz slowly moved away only for La Machine to come back again for a final attack, toppling Tazz onto its back, where it was unable to self right. La Machine met frequent rivals DooMore in the third round. Here, La Machine quickly rammed DooMore which disabled its weapon. La Machine circled around DooMore and shunted it against one of the "mousetraps" almost toppling it over. DooMore attempted to drive away but La Machine was the quicker and drove itself underneath DooMore - toppling it onto its side where it became trapped on one of the "mousetraps". This left DooMore immobile, resulting in La Machine progressing on through. In the 1996 Championship final, La Machine fought BioHazard. Both robot circled each other with La Machine attempting to get underneath BioHazard, however, BioHazard's hidden skirts prevented this. La Machine backs away and accidentally drove into a "mousetrap". La Machine attempted to attack BioHazard a second time but was immediately lifted from the front. La Machine then dropped back down and attempted to drive away from BioHazard - only to be reversed into. Soon, it became a game of cat and mouse as both robots darted across the arena attempting to get underneath one another. BioHazard managed to get a lift on La Machine but La Machine once again escaped - only to get caught by a broken piece of the arena. Here, La Machine became immobile which allowed BioHazard to lift La Machine and celebrate its victory. La Machine then appeared in two rumbles, one of which was heavily featured in Heat D of the First Wars. The first Rumble involved The Master, Vlad the Impaler, BioHazard and DooMore. In the battle, La Machine rammed Vlad the Impaler into the side wall, getting underneath it before BioHazard intercepted and lifted Vlad the Impaler - failing to topple it. Soon after, La Machine bulldozed The Master. This caused the entire saw blade arm to fall off and dart across the arena. La Machine then proceeded to get revenge on BioHazard by toppling it over and slamming it into the arena corner. La Machine followed this by shunting Biohazard across the arena - which left Biohazard immobile. Vlad the Impaler then ended up being flipped over after backing into La Machine's wedge. La Machine continued its domination by ramming DooMore forcefully out of the arena. La Machine then bulldozed the weaponless The Master around to seal its Rumble victory. In the second rumble, La Machine fought South Bay Mauler, The Master, DooMore, Tazz, Punjar, Nemesis, Killbborg, Red Scorpion, Merrimac, Namreko, Gut Rip and Marvin. At the start of the fight, La Machine was attacked by Merrimac. Soon after, Punjar and The Master teamed up by getting its blade underneath La Machine while Punjar pushed La Machine against an arena flipper. La Machine drove off of the flipper and attacked DooMore - getting underneath it. Not much is known about the full rumble but it is known that La Machine along side Punjar and Gut Rip were some of the few still mobile at the end. La Machine won the rumble through a crowd cheer. Outside Robot Wars Lamachineold.jpg|La Machine in 1995 Lamachines3.0.png|La Machine as it appeared in BattleBots Season 3.0 File:Vladtheimpaler_1996.jpg|Vlad the Impaler in 1996 Vlad-BBS3.jpg|Vlad the Impaler File:Vlad_2_sf02.jpg|Vlad the Impaler 2 File:Vladiator_S3.0_sf01.jpg|Vladiator File:Vladiator_BB5.0.jpg|Vladiator in BattleBots Season 5.0 Ginsu_sf01.jpg|Ginsu La Machine won the 1995 middleweight tournament, and finished second in the 1996 and 1997 heavyweight divisions, falling to BioHazard both times. It did however remain undefeated in rumbles, winning both the middle and heavyweight rumbles in 1995, then winning the 1996 Heavyweight one. Gage Cauchois split from the team to build his own robots, Vlad the Impaler, its successor Vlad the Impaler 2 and the Super Heavyweight version Vladiator. While Trey Roski and Greg Munson went on to found and run the US competition BattleBots, which went on to become a TV show. Trey and Greg also built Ginsu. Consequentially, La Machine's only BattleBots appearance on television was an exhibition match against Jay Leno's Chinkilla, Team Coolrobots' Dreadnought and Ginsu in Season 3.0. La Machine had previously appeared at the BattleBots Long Beach event in 1999, where it entered the arena with no armour and was used as the "camerabot" seen in many of the fights. Trivia *La Machine was featured heavily during the BattleBots 2018 season as the last competitor listed of the 56 robots, leading to speculation and rumour surrounding its return. However, the tongue-in-cheek image was used only to replace the actual 56th competitor, Raven, which never participated in a battle. **La Machine even appeared in the official BattleBots colouring book in place of Raven. External Links *La Machine on the Ultimate Robot Archive Wikia *[https://battlebots.fandom.com/wiki/La_Machine La Machine on BattleBots Wiki] *Archived Team Website Category:Robots in The Combat Robot Hall of Fame Category:1994-1997 US Robot Wars competitors Category:US robots that competed in BattleBots Category:Weaponless Robots Category:Robots with Ramming Blades Category:Robots from California Category:Middleweights Category:Robots that have thrown another robot out of the arena